An Unbearable Journey
by EpsilonMk46
Summary: Out in the magical lands of her home, Leni finds a peculiar creature, one that she vows to help out however she can.


The sky rippled with streams of pink and aquamarine, the birds made of chocolate soared through the air, and the animals, gumdrop and ice cream alike, littered the land, licking away at the various lollipops and cotton candy bushes that grew all across the land. Frolicking in the fields of lime taffy and of peanut brittle roads, a young Leni Loud came over the hilltops wearing a green ballerina dress, her hair sporting twin pigtails in the sides of her head, and a pair of emerald glass slippers were fitted on her feet. Leni loves all the animals in the candy fields, and everyday she would come down from her cottage in the distance to play with them as long as the sun radiated above. The blonde would pick the suckers that littered along the roads and toss them all over the fields for all the caramel puppies to bring back to her. And sometimes, their playtime tired them to the point where they would all fall asleep under the night sky, atop Leni's belly.

As for her meals, Leni simply picked off all of the pieces of delectable sweets she could find, and fortunately for her, whatever she picked grew back instantaneously, sometimes leading to her going on to pick the same items over and over and over again. There even came times where she'd jokingly pick up an animal and nibble at their ears, much to their horror, only for her to playfully toss them into the air and catch them, leading to her giving each of them a little nuzzle with her nose.

For the longest time, things remained this way, and little Leni lived in the candy fields. All was well with the universe, and the girl enjoyed herself beyond belief without a care in the world. That was, until one fateful day, as she was walking about picking her daily blueberry lollipops, Leni overheard a small but vocal wail over in the distance. Surprised at the sound, she ran over in its direction, and with each step, the crying began to grow even more apparent. When she reached the hilltop, she looked around until she spotted a blotch of blue in the corner of her eye. And when she turned her head, she saw a small, blue little bear made entirely of cotton and fabric, sobbing its heart out, as it sat on the taffy.

With a harsh gasp, Leni made a mad dash towards the bear, the lollipops in her basket falling out from her haste. And when she began to approach it, Leni stopped on a dime and knelt down to meet the bear's eyes. That was when she saw a clear look at his face, and noticed one of its eyes was made out of a button, and the other closed tight, almost as if it were missing entirely. The green girl then looked down to see a second button on the ground stained with tears. Putting two and two together, she scooped the bear off of his knees, and held it with his head in her elbow pit, and his legs dangling over her other arm.

"Oh, you poor thing," she said. "Let Auntie Leni try to make you feel all better, okay?" The little blue bear, while not stopping entirely, began to calm himself with a sniffle and a few more tears, as he looked up at Leni with a forlorn expression. Leni then put him down on the ground, wiped away the remainder of his tears, and picked up the button in her hands. From there, she took out a needle, to which the bear began to tremble, his lips quivering.

"Oh, don't be afraid, Mr. Bear," Leni purred. "This is just a sewing needle. With this, I can make your eye go back to normal. Doesn't that sound fun?" Even still, the bear was little more than trepidation. But with a loving gaze, Leni looked deep into the blue bear's remaining eye, and softly whispered, "I won't ever hurt you. You can trust me to make you feel all better." With that, the bear stopped his trembling, and he closed his eye, hoping not to feel any pain.

Leni immediately set to work, and took the button in her hand and planted it firmly in the eye socket of the bear. She then took her needle, and looped a piece of thread in its hole. Lastly, she poked through the fallen button through the skin of the bear, as she threaded and sewed it nice and tight back in place. All the while, the bear internally squirmed and was begging for the whole ordeal to be done and over with. Though he would never admit it, he couldn't stand the thought of having a stranger handle him in such a way. Through the alien feeling he received all around his body from the little girl's small hands to the strange combination of ticklishness and pain from having his injured area being tended to, all of it was, to him, too much to bear. In fact, the cotton creature thought to bolt away from Leni even if she was in the middle of her work. But then, all too suddenly, Leni pulled one final needle out of the button and took a step back.

"All done!" Leni cheered, putting away her tool. The bear then squinted a bit before opening his eyes, and as he did so, a clear picture began to become apparent to him once again. The bear looked up towards Leni, and the fear he'd held onto before started to fade away from his mind and soul, as he slowly got on all fours and crawled over to her legs. Leni then looked down at the bear, and felt her heart melt as it looked at her with a curious expression. She picked him up by his armpits and held the bear a few inches away from her face.

"Awww! You are just the cutest thing," she cooed. But she could still sense a hint of bewilderment from her companion, and sought to break the ice the best way she knew how: some silly faces and ticklings! The blue bear started to become antsy being held for so long, but soon, he felt a humorous sensation rage all across his body, and he began to laugh uncontrollably from Leni's bombardment of fingers relentless raiding every feasible part of his skin. And the cherry on top was Leni herself sticking her tongue out of her mouth in every which way, her eyes alternating between opening and closing as well as taking a break from looking in the same direction and sporting a rather derpy look. All this combined made for a comedic effort perfectly suited for a baby, and it seemed to work wonders on the little bear, as he was laughing his little heart out of his chest.

When her playful attack was over, and as she stopped her relentless ticklings and held him close, Leni thought to break the ice with her new friend. "Well, I'm so happy that you're feeling better!" she said. "But I do have to ask...what's your name, Mr. Bear? Or do you want me to just call you that all day long?"

The bear didn't entirely comprehend what she asked, only opting to stick his thumb in his mouth.

"Hmmm…. Well, if you don't really have a name, then I'll just give you one!" the girl proclaimed. "Now let's see… When you were missing your eye, you looked like you were winking at me… Oh! That's it! I think I'll call you Mr. Winky Bear! You like that?" The bear clapped along and smiled, only really understanding that her caretaker was gleeful at what she proposed.

The little girl's heart began to swell at such a sight, feeling a sense of pride in that she was able to dispel his woes. Seeing such a little bear so smitten by her kindness and care made her feel as if she was responsible for him feeling happy, and above all, she had the power to keep him happy beyond this day. It was then she realized, she could effectively become this bear's...mother.

Leni's heart started to swell from such a thought. If she could quell the wool animal so efficiently just now, the possibilities were endless as to what else she could do for him. Reminiscing about how she has so much fun with her candy friends, the girl began to think that taking care of a bear would be child's play. She could take him out every day to play in the fields outside her home, make him a steaming bowl of lemon lime taffy soup, take him out to play in the fields outside her home...make him a steaming bowl of lemon lime taffy soup...take him out to play in the fields...again...make him lemon lime taffy soup...again…

The young girl's smile began to fade away into a slight frown, as she found herself mulling over the surprising limits of what she actually knew what to do. And even with her abysmal knowledge on how to take proper care of a child, she figured that doing the same thing over and over again would get really boring rather quickly. And even with what she could offer, her gardens were actually rather small once one got used to them, and her culinary skills certainly were nothing all that special.

But as she looked at the creature again, she began to think about how he was at least a year old, and that there must have been something that had taken care of him before that point. That was when it struck her like a lightning bolt: the bear must have a mother, and that mother must be worried sick! And most of all, if Leni didn't do something to help the poor blue animal right then and there, there was no telling what could happen to it.

Faced with this revelation, Leni put the bear down on the ground and kneeled down to meet him face to face. "So, um…" she started, mumbling her words near the end. "Do you...know how you got here?" In response, the bear let out a series of incoherent babbles and hand motions, to which the pigtailed girl simply smiled and shook her head. 'Okay, I should've seen that coming,' she thought to herself. "Well, surely you aren't from around here, are you? I mean, all that's around here is candy; and you sure don't look like you're made of candy." Taking a closer look, she took her hand and rubbed the bear's cheek.

"Hmmm...well, it looks like you're made of wool," she said. "Do you know any place that might have any of that?"

The bear then tilted his head to the side, unable to comprehend what she had asked. Leni then planted her hands on her chin as she sat upon the ground. 'Let's see… Do I know any place that is made of wool…?' The pigtailed child racked her brains over and over as a breeze carrying bunches of fabric blew past her, causing her to look in its direction. That was when she laid eyes on a sudden shift between the candy fields of her homeland, and a strange, woven stitching of fabric adorned along the ground. Sprouting from the ground were dozens of trees topped with balls of cotton, and the sky was all too suddenly shifted from pink and cyan to a clear white. The bear on the ground began to jump up and down as his eyes widened when he saw the distant realm.

"Mama! Mama!" he exclaimed, causing Leni to look down towards the bear.

"Wait, wait, is that your home?" she asked.

"Mama! Mama!" the bear continued, not even close to stopping its relentless jumping. The girl then began to understand what he was trying to convey, as she proceeded to scoop him up from the ground with a beaming smile.

"Well, I know what we gotta do then!" she said, "Mr. Winky Bear, let's get you back home."

The blue bear began to clap endlessly, seeing his caretaker in such high spirits. And so the two set off, galloping across the fields towards the bear's home.

But on their way over, Leni began to sense a sinister presence crawl on her back. While she did not slow down to a standstill, she began to simply run just a little bit slower.

" _Turn back... "_ a whisper in the wind spoke seemingly straight into her ear. " _Turn back now...or you will regret it…"_

Leni's jog slowed even further as the smile across her face began to falter, and her pace slowed to walking speed.

" _You really aren't that smart, are you?"_ the whisper hissed again. " _Turn. Back."_

The pigtailed girl began to feel her teeth fall into a steady chatter, as her eyes darted back and forth, her speed beginning to fall to a mere crawl.

" _What's the matter, little girl? Do you not know where you're going?"_ the voice quietly screamed with venomous anger. _"Are you completely stupid?!"_

"NO!" Leni yelled, falling to the ground, her knees shaking, her teeth beginning to grind against each other, and tears sprouting from the corners of her eyes. "I...I'm not stupid. I'm not...I'm not…"

Feeling a nuzzle in her bosom, the little girl looked down to see the bear having a great deal of concern. A pang surged through her heart, as she said: "I-I'm sorry, Mr. Bear. I-I thought I heard something." That was a half truth, for she was absolutely certain she heard something, but she didn't dare scaring the child with such news. But as she took notice to her companion's expression, Leni reminded herself that this bear was in need of her aid, as she rose up, albeit half-heartedly, and began to take a few more steps forward.

However, the second she took another step forward, the ground began fall forward, as her foot almost slipped along with it. Reeling back, Leni caught herself in her tracks as she fell along the grayed out green taffy. Baffled as to what gave way to what, she looked forward and gasped in sheer horror as to what she saw: a chasm of darkness that was around fifty feet deep. At the base of the trench were nothing but a bright red mist and dead trees with wicked branches as sharp as swords, all topped off by floors of ash. And as the duo looked across the way, their homes were separated by over three miles of this chasm, all with the trees bundled together, creating a confounding maze from which there was no escape.

Leni heaved a mighty breath at the sight of her obstacle, as she looked one more time over the entirety of the divide, and her heart knew that if she wanted to get the blue bear back home, she'd have to cross it.

' _Turn back, little girl!'_ the voice said in a much more clear voice, one that even the bear heard. But Leni maintained her determination and spoke to Mr. Winky Bear, "Let's go. We can take on this mean pit." And with that, the green dressed girl took a few more steps down the edge, more than careful not to lose her footing.

' _This is your last chance. Turn back now.'_ the phantom threatened. But the girl was undeterred, as she kept on treading down the slope into the darkness. ' _...Very well.'_ That was when Leni heard something resembling a finger snapping. The earth began to quake, and the ground from which Leni had tread before crumbled away. The five year old clutched her bear as she screamed at the top of her lungs and rolled the entire way down into the ditch.

Landing with a thud, the world around Leni spiraled as she felt sick to her stomach. Knocking the side of her head, she attempted to reorient herself. But as soon as she did so, her heart grinded to a halt when she noticed that the bear was gone from her arms. Leni scampered around and darted her head every which way.

"MR. WINKY BEAR! WHERE ARE YOU?!" she screamed in a panic. In response, a loud wail entered Leni's eardrums with a faint, yet powerful sense. As she detected where the sound had come from, she looked towards the forest of trees. "Hold on! I'm coming for you!" And then, she made a mad dash into the maze.

Even in the haste of her sprint, and with reaction times clocking in the milliseconds, Leni sidestepped all of the razor sharp twigs, as she ran towards the first pathway that entered her field of view without even so much as caring where they lead. As long as they got her closer and closer to her companion, that was all she cared about.

"Come on, come on," she said to herself. "I'm going to find him!"

" _Will you now? I wonder about that."_ the voice taunted, causing Leni to grit her teeth as she kept on running along the ashen floor. For several more minutes, the girl began to grow more and more exhausted, as she breathed heavily and felt her legs begin to shake. In a desperate grasp for direction, she tried to look towards the sky to find where the woolen world was. But to her despair, the sky was only covered in darkness.

" _Oh, look at yourself, little girl. You're as lost as a puppy out in the streets."_ the omnipresent being said.

"SHUT UP!" Leni screamed out into the darkness. "You can't stop me from finding my Winky Bear!"

" _Stop you?"_ the voice responded with a devilish laugh. " _I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. The only thing I really desire is to watch you in torment."_

The pigtailed girl clenched her eyes shut and held her hands up to her ears, running blindly further in the labyrinth of trees. But just as she did so, she tripped along her own pace, and as she slid across the ground, her knees became scraped and bruised before she stopped her slide. The girl then opened her eyes cautiously as she laid eyes on a branch merely centimeters away from the bridge between her eyes. But Leni did not, or could not, move an inch, for her limbs were frozen in fear, and at that point, she began to lose control of her tears as they flowed freely down her cheeks.

" _Oh, what a shame."_ the voice spoke with a sigh. _"So it seems you cannot save your friend after all."_ Leni said nothing in return. _"Hmm… Well, I suppose I am satisfied now."_

Looking up only with her eyes, she said: "W-What?"

" _Yes, your sadness has more than provided a sufficient meal for me. I will now reunite you with your precious animal."_ Leni then heard a finger snap once more, as the trees began to rumble. Perplexed, Leni sat up, as one of the trees in front of her started to sink into the ash. Afterwards, more and more trees sunk systematically, until eventually a path opened up to the little girl. And in the distance, Leni heard her bear's cries ring out with much more clarity than before, yet she only slowed stood up while still staring in the cry's direction.

"Wait a second…" Leni murmured. "This is some kind of trick, isn't it? You're trying to trap me!"

" _Trap you? Oh, no no no. I've already gotten my fill. I honestly have no use for you."_ the voice chided with a touch of laughter. Leni still was all too skeptical, but she still took a few steps forward, at which point the cry wailed out again, sparking her maternal instincts as she began to speed her pace. She began to lose her previous inhibitions, for she believed that if there was any chance that she could be reunited with her Mr. Winky Bear, then she absolutely had to take it. And with that thought, she ran, and ran and ran and ran some more. The cries began to grow louder and louder the farther she went, until all too suddenly, as the darkness in front of her, a blue shape began to form itself right in front of the girl's very eyes. This time, the tears that made themselves known from Leni's red eyes were tears of joy, as she discerned what exactly is was that she was seeing.

It was Mr. Winky Bear, crying just like the first moment she laid eyes on him.

In a mad dash, Leni knelt onto the ground and scooped the bear up from its spot, and squeezed it vehemently. "Oh, Mr. Bear!" Leni wailed. "I thought you were gone forever!" Her lips quivered, as she held the bear close and looked him in the eyes. "Please don't leave me again… Please…"

" _Aww, aren't you just a happy little camper now?"_

A sense of anger returned to Leni as she held her bear even tighter. "That's right!" she said. "And thanks for getting us back together. Now leave us alone!"

The voice erupted into a wicked laugh, as a red mist began to surround the duo. _"Leave you alone?" it asked. "But why would I do that?"_

Leni felt a bead of sweat drip from her forehead, as she darted her head around to notice multiple pairs of black shapes of creepy eyes showing up in the mist.

" _After all…" the ghostly voice continued, "I haven't even gotten my dessert yet…"_

The mist then drastically cleared away, revealing the forms of five demons, each with varying shapes of monsters, but all with the same ravenous look in their mouths and eyes.

" _Or shall we say, WE haven't gotten our dessert!"_ the demons all said in a unified, sinister scowl. Leni's legs began to tremble, but her eyes couldn't bare to shed anymore tears. "B-B-But-But you said you'd leave us alone…." she whimpered.

" _Oh, we did, but that was the key ingredient for the final course! One heaping plate of betrayal~~~"_ the monsters responded in a devilish tone. _"And now...it's time to_ _ **feast!**_ _"_

Leni's pupils shrunk to the size of pebbles as the demons bared their fangs and moved in slowly closer to them. She scrambled to find a way out, but everywhere she looked, a path was blocked by either trees or the monsters. In the face of such a desperate situation, Leni could do no more but sit on the ground, her knees holding the bear to her body, and close her eyes. All she could think then was that it might have been the end.

But then, something that was nothing short of a miracle happened. Mr. Winky Bear jumped straight out of Leni's grip, and stood in front of her, his arms stretched out as far as they could and legs planted firmly into the ash. There, the bear shined a bright blue aura, as it was lifted from the ground. Leni watched in utter awe in such a sight, as the demons surrounding her shrunk in fear. In addition, the trench they were entrapped in started to tremble, and all of its inhabitants began to rise up into the dark veil above them. And once they were fully cloaked into the darkness, the blue bear unleashed all of its energy and beamed brighter than the sun, blinding Leni almost instantly, and making the demons cry in utter agony, as they all ran away from the two friends.

By the time Leni regained her eyesight, the chasm had risen up to the surface once again, and the next thing she knew, the demons were all gone, and the pit was as if it never existed in the first place. In the midst of the chaos that had just occurred, the only thing that mattered to the five year old was what had happened to her bear. And as she wiped away her tears and went over to check on him, she saw that he was perfectly fine and was just looking at her with a wide smile.

"M-Mr. Winky Bear…" the girl said. "You...you saved us…" Feeling her weight give way, she knelt on the taffy that was once again beneath her and hugged the blue creature with tremendous tightness, tears once again flowing down her face. "Oh, thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! I'm sooooooo proud of you!"

"Mama… Mama!" the bear replied, sending Leni's heart into a jump. Was it really true? Did the bear now see her as her mother? Was that the true reason he saved her? These questions and more surged through her mind through that one simple word. But as she composed herself, she noticed that the bear was pointing towards the seam in which the taffy ground transformed into carpet flooring. That's when he remembered the bear's home, and why she wanted to help him out in the first place.

"Oh...that's right… You need to get back home to your mama," Leni thought out loud. Turning away, she then said: "W-Well, let's get going then."

The two went on their way towards the bear's home, and once Leni set foot onto the fabric, she gasped in surprise as to how warm and soft it actually was to touch. She even felt that the breeze on her skin felt strangely comforting, as if it was there to keep her company whenever it felt sad. Had she not been on a mission, she probably would've sunk herself into the ground and never left it for the rest of her life. But the bear nudged her shoulder with his head, knocking her out of her trance. And with a forlorn look, she continued on.

Atop a hill, Leni spotted a single village within the base of a valley, which she figured to be the bear's hometown, for it was the closest one around and she figured that Mr. Winky Bear couldn't have gotten very far given that he was injured when she found her. And so she went on into the village, but much to her bewilderment, while there were a multitude of building scattered all around, there wasn't a soul in sight, no light lit in any window. Leni carefully walked down the trail of plaid, scanning her vicinity every single moment she resided in the mysterious town. Ut before she knew it, she found herself outside the array of structures, and then she saw only a single house far away from the main streets. Seeing as how this would've been the last house to check anyways, she proceeded on.

As she got closer, she noticed that there was indeed some activity going on in the household. The garden was full of cotton flowers, and it looked like it was well tended to every single day. This had to be it, Leni thought, as she went up to the front door and gave it a knock.

"Who is it?" answered a voice from the inside?

"Umm...my name is Leni, and I...uhh…."

"Well? Speak up," the being inside spoke.

"I...think I found your baby, and-"

"You WHAT?!" cried the voice, before the door swang right open, revealing a bear very similar to the blue bear in Leni's arms, but with a pink color double the size of even her.

"Honey? What was that?" another voice called out from the inside.

"He's back! He actually came back to us!" the pink bear exclaimed profusely, followed by a mass of footsteps being heard, and a dark green bear that was even bigger than the pink one.

"Are you kidding?!" the green bear shouted, looking down at Mr. Winky Bear, while subsequently gasping harshly and holding his hands up to his cheeks. "Oh, dear lordy! You're home, champ!"

"Oh, thanks so much, Leni!" the pink bear said. "But wherever did you even find him?"

"Well, that's a funny story, actually," Leni replied. "You see, I was just walking around my fields when I found Mr. Winky Bear-"

"Hmm? You named him 'Mr. Winky Bear'?" the green bear interrupted, before realizing what he'd done. "Oh, sorry, sweetie, please go on."

"Riiight. Anyways, I found him crying out in the fields, and he even had an entire eye missing. So i went over to him, sewed the eye back on, and when I found out that he belonged to this land, I wanted to bring him straight here. And so, here I am," Leni explained, purposefully leaving out the ashen chasm for a multitude of reasons.

The bear couple looked at one another, and then back to the girl. "Well...that sounds like a lot of fun you two had," the pink bear said, which came as a major surprise to Leni. She half expected her to be shocked, horrified even, to find out that her child had gone without a whole _eye_ for an extended period of time. So the girl was more than perplexed that the mother bear wasn't even fazed by such a fact.

"Ah, it doesn't matter now, does it?" the father bear said to his lover. "Now, we really do thank you for looking after our baby boy, but I think it's time you give him back to us, wouldn't you say?"

Leni internally looked at the green bear with a befuddled look. She began to wonder why he was talking the way he was. It almost seemed like all he cared about was just getting the bear back rather than the bear itself. This combined with the mother's suspicious behavior was enough to signal to the pigtailed girl that something was very wrong in her current position.

With all but her instincts to guide her, she held the baby away from them. "No," she stated, sending the parents aback. "I wanna know how he got out to where I live and how you let that even happen to him in the first place!"

"Uuhhh, ookkaayy?" the father said. "All that really happened was that we turned our backs on him for a few minutes and the next thing we knew, he was gone."

"Is-Is that really all you can say?!" Leni found herself blurting out. "What about the fact that I found missing a whole eye?!"

"Does it really matter?" the mother stated. "I mean, it's not like he actually felt pain or anything."

"E-E-EXCUSE ME?!" Leni shouted at the top of her lungs, shutting her eyes, stomping her foot, and gripping the blue bear with overwhelming force. "He was _crying_! He was out there in the middle of nowhere _crying his heart out to the entire world!_ How in the world is that not feeling pain?!"

"But what are you even talking about, Leni? I mean, that bear is just a toy." the green bear said with a touch of concern.

At that point, Leni was at her boiling point. "A toy?! A TOY?!" she screamed with venomous contempt. "Are you really going to tell me that _this_ is a toy?!" With that final exclamation, she held the blue bear out in front of her, but stopped herself dead cold when she realized something horribly strange about it at that moment. Leni took the bear, turned it around to where she could see its face, and gasped in utter terror.

"Wh-What in the-?" she muttered under her breath, her eyes widening, as she realized that the two bear were right. Mr. Winky Bear was indeed a toy, one that didn't have a pulse, a breath to take, or any emotions to give. The girl's hands shook, as she just stood there, befuddled beyond all comprehension.

"Leni...I think it's time we have a talk," the mother spoke with grave sincerity. All around the valley, Leni's surroundings began to become shrouded in a veil of pitch blackness, to where only her and the house were all that was left in color.

"We know that you really like this bear, sweetie, but this has really become a bad habit of yours." said the father, sporting the same tone of voice as his wife.

"What...what are you talking...about?" Leni asked with nothing but incomprehensible murmurs.

"I mean, for pete's sake, you've been treating that bear as if it's a real living being. Nobody your age even does that anymore," the mother said.

"You...you're wrong...I...I…" Leni tried to whisper.

"So if you can't shape yourself together…" the father continued, reaching into Leni's arms and taking hold of the toy. "...then I'm afraid that we're going to have to take Mr. Winky Bear away."

Even if she couldn't speak clearly, Leni had the strength to maintain some hold onto her bear. But as she held on, she saw that the hands of the bears began to morph into those that resembled her own, but much bigger and more grown. She then looked up to notice a sight that sent a chill down her spine: the bear's had transformed into her own parents, Rita and Lynn Sr.

"I'm sorry, honey, but this is for your own good," they both uttered together. Suddenly, the ground at Leni's feet shook with tremendous force, as the carpet leading up to where she was started to fall inch by inch into the black abyss. By the time the ground had reached her, Leni was beginning to lose her grasp of the bear, due to how outclassed she was in terms of strength.

"You need to grow up."

Those were the final words Leni perceived before her grip faltered, the inch of ground she stood on gave way, and she fell down into the dark void below.

The last thing she heard was the sound of the house's door slamming shut.

* * *

Springing up like a jackknife, Leni Loud awoke from her slumber, clutching her hand to her stomach, breathing as if she'd been underwater for several minutes. Darting her head around the room, she found herself in an all too familiar environment: her own bedroom. And to her left, she saw her sister, Lori, sound asleep in her own bed, as the moonlight gleamed in through the window.

Taking a moment to decompress from her night terrors, Leni took the time to mull over what she had just experienced in her dream. She vaguely remembered an abyss, a small village in a valley, a seemingly impassable chasm with nightmarish evils that laid hidden within, and a…

A bear…

"Mr. Winky Bear!" Leni almost exclaimed before she caught herself mid sentence. A floodgate of memories came crashing into the fashionista's mind as she vividly remembers everything that had transpired between her and her companion. Her nursing him back to health, their death defying quest through the gorge, and her losing him to the eternal abyss. Throwing off her covers, and with a sense of determination, she knew what had to be done.

She had to get back Mr. Winky Bear, no matter what it took.

Leni proceeded to plop herself onto the floor and began to think. If she were a childhood bear, where would she be stashed? That was when she realized that everyone's old junk was held in the attic. If her bear was anywhere, it had to be there! And so, Leni tiptoed with great silence all the way over to her door. She then took the handle, and slowly creaked it open inch by inch, looking outside the gap to see if anyone was in the hall. Once she saw that no one was around, she took a step outside, but her heart fell into the pits of her stomach when she heard a voice coming from the room directly across from hers.

" _The way I feel about you is out of this world~~"_ a singing voice rang out from the other side.

Cursing her luck, Leni thought of a way to make her way to the attic without anyone knowing she was there to find a silly old toy. But then, Leni patted her forehead to feel her blindfold, and in that moment, she knew just how to make her actions perfectly natural. With conviction, Leni took the blindfold, placed it in front of her eyes, held out her arms, prayed that she wouldn't run into a wall, and went over to Luna and Luan's room and slammed the door wide open.

"Mr. Winky Bear?" she cried, as she wandered around with a faux lack of balance. "Where's Mr. Winky Bear?"

"Shhh!" Luna hissed from atop her bunk. "Dude, you're sleepwalking again."

"I've got to get to the attic to save Mr. Winky Bear!" Leni continued.

"You haven't played with him since you were five!" the rocker responded, which left a wound on Leni's heart, but she didn't dare show it. But thankfully for the sixteen year old, Luna promptly got up from her bed and led Leni towards her door. "The attic…and Mr. Winky Bear…are that-a-way."

Leni then exited the room, and once she heard the door close behind her, she removed the blindfold and internally squealed. Now she could search without anyone finding her actions odd. Wasting no time at all, Leni walked over under the attic door, and tugged at the string which hung from the handle. But she was surprised to see it swing down right on top of her, and it took all of her might to ensure that it didn't land with such a thud that it woke everyone in the house. Eventually, with all the cringe inducing creaks the attic door was so infamous for, Leni placed the stairs on the floor, and climbed her way up.

'Alright, alright. So far, so good,' Leni thought to herself. Once she was inside, she looked around to find a collection of chests within the back corner of the space. Each one had a different name inscribed on their fronts, and Leni's was stacked on top of five others, which the teen was very thankful for, as she pulled it off its perch with little to no effort. But before she opened it, she clasped her hands together and hoped that she would find her beloved bear inside. If it wasn't in there, she would've had no clue where it was, and it could've been very possible that she could never see it again. But she also knew that she'd gone this far; there was no turning back.

With heavy nerves weighing down on her heart, she opened her crate, and almost immediately, she recognized nearly three quarters of its contents. There was a hairbrush she made in arts and crafts in first grade that had toothpicks and q-tips, a drawing she made that had crudely drawn stick figures battling a monster made out of socks with sandals from middle school, even a math test with a big fat F on the top that was from a few days before. But as she kept on perusing her old belongings, she hadn't yet found Mr. Winky Bear, which brought great worry to her.

As she kept on digging through, becoming more and more reckless with where she threw everything that wasn't her bear, the hope that it was in there began to dwindle knickknack by knickknack. By the time she reach the last 10 objects, she had almost given up entirely. Her heart began to give in to the despair that the toy had been lost in some kind of spring cleaning or that it was sold away to another family, and she had lost it forever. That was until she reached her hand near the bottom of the box, where she felt something incredibly soft. Rummaging her way through the other miscellaneous items, her eyes glistened at what she found. It was there, a stuffed blue bear that was missing one button eye.

Leni's eyes started to tear up, as she gave the toy a great, big hug. "Oh, Mr. Winky Bear," she whispered, kneeling onto the ground. "I knew you were here. I'm so sorry I left you behind."

Leni's tears began to flow freely, as the bear sat in her arms completely lifeless. Sensing its lack of communication, Leni looked over to her sides, where she caught a glance at a mirror propped against the wall. In it, she noticed the sight of a grown teenager crying over a stuffed toy. Chuckling a bit on the inside, she wiped her eyes and looked at her toy.

"I know you aren't really real," she professed, "and I'm honestly sorry that I made you think that you were. But...that doesn't change all the good times we had...does it?" Once more, the bear made no response. Feeling one more tear about to drip, Leni placed the blue bear onto the floor, and began to pack everything away neatly into her chest. Once she was all done, she gave Mr. Winky Bear a special spot right on top of the pile. She then reached the lid and was preparing to close it, but not before looking at the stuffed animal and saying: "Well, I don't care if you're real or just a toy anymore." Then, the final tear let itself loose, landing straight into the bear's empty eye socket. "Thanks for helping me be happy."

And with that line, she closed the trunk shut.


End file.
